|
Why is tuning a piano necessary? First of all, there has never been a piano made by any company, at any price, that does not require
a schedule of regular tunings. It is also a fact that a piano will go out of tune whether it is played or not.
The main
reason why pianos go out of tune is due to changes in humidity from season to season, affecting all pianos, new and old, played
and unplayed.
Pianos go flat in the winter months when dry heat expelled from your heater draws moisture out of the piano's
soundboard. In the spring, when you turn the heat off, the air is usually more moist. The soundboard absorbs this moisture,
expands and causes the piano to go sharp(rise in pitch) by the summer. These seasonal changes in tuning are often most obvious
in the mid-range of the piano.
Temperature and humidity are the two main culprits, humidity being the far worse foe of
the two. Direct light, either stage or from the sun, can affect the tuning within 30 minutes or less.When you move, it is
not so much the transportation of the piano that throws the tuning out as much as the piano getting used to to its new room
environment. Wait about 2-4 weeks after you move before you get a tuning.
If both humidity and temperature are controlled
in the room where the piano is displayed, these fluctuations in tuning virtually disappear and your tuning is much more stable.
So is the overall consistency of the touch response you'll get from the keyboard.
New strings can cause the pitch to
go flat. New music wire is quite elastic and starts to stretch as soon as it is pulled up to pitch. This is why new pianos
or pianos that have been restrung need to be tuned more frequently in the first year. Each time the wire is pulled up, the
amount of stretching decreases and the tuning becomes more stable.
Slipping tuning pins can also cause a piano to go
flat(below pitch). Older pianos that have been exposed to regular seasonal humidity changes over the years can have loose
tuning pins and as a result, have poor tuning stability.
The louder and more often you play a piano, the faster it goes
out of tune by a small amount. The force of a hammer repeatedly hitting a string can affect the equalization of tension along
the string's length, and cause its pitch to be slightly altered. (Ask any guitarist about strings getting played)
To
put the matter of tuning in perspective, remember that a concert piano is tuned before every performance, and a piano in a
professional recording studio, where it is in constant use, can be tuned several times a week so that every recording has
a fresh piano.
|
